44 ::? ,:) L" ,' ......' 1 .... .Ai :" , ( := ':, ''- t, , \ r 'c '\ ... ._' ('#' w ' "*- ,:' '.' ;.N 1; ", . . ", . h , \ , p ,ø " . "\ ':. r ' . .,).. "1 ':. \' <. " , " \, , 4 , 'II ., 7J f. F. .e 4 1 ..... "\ .. .... 1: .. . . . . . t .: . .. . ,. ? 1. , \ . > !d\. \ ' , qf . '.. ---..' '. '\)I uI.S "Who asked for rain?" . he learned from a street sign, and walk- Ing toward a heavy, dark railway over- pass that said, oddly enough, "New York Centra!." Freight cars lay in long parallel rows underneath and beside it, and beyond it tall, gaunt buildings rose sparsely, with here and there a whole floor lighted bluely, and prob- ably racketing with machinery, while the rest was dark. Across the street, at the sidewalk level of a square, squat con- crete building, obviously a warehouse, rows of trucks were loading at their ramps, and in the recesses within he could make out figures moving. It was a part of the city he had never been in before, and the whole look and feel of the region was strange to him; it was like being in a foreIgn city, but beyond the warehouse a corner gas station showed the Amoco sign over its pumps. .l\cross from it was a bar, and when he saw that he headed for it. He could use a drink, at thIs moment, God knew he could use one, and he was almost at the entrance before he remembered that he had no money at all. They had his money back there at the station house. They had his billfold, his commutation ticket, his name and ad- dress-and small wonder they hadn't . bothered to chase him much: they knew everythIng they needed to know about him to begin with More than that- But now, for the space of a minute or so, he held himself off from thinking. Wire fencing bordered the sidewalk where it ran past the railroad siding, and when he came to that, he leaned against one of its posts and stood look- ing blankly back along the way he had come. It had come over hIm suddenly, fully, that nobody had believed him at all. Frank hadn't; he had realized that almost from the start, though he had taken it only as a sign of Frank's caution. And once, toward the end of their talk, Chuck had cried out to him, "You don't thInk I reall} did it, do you, damn it?" And Frank had said, in that purs) little way of his, "I don't kno\v what to think, Chuck. But whatever the truth is, I'll do what I can to help you." But h<:> couldn't ask Alice that, too-not before the damned grinning cop-and it oc- curred to him now that he hadn't had t06 It had not been what she said so much as her manner, and it made him won- der: What in God's name did people think he had come to, anyway? Now, it struck him suddenly, he didn't have to ask that, either. The an- swer was all too clear, and after a few moments, as if the post he was leanIng against were somehow ill-omened, he shoved hin1self away from it and Inoved on to lean against another one. Off a little to his left, above the buildings, he could see the pink glow in the sky that meant Times Square and the center of the city. He knew where h<:> was, in re- lation to it. But where he was going was another Inatter. He could bull his wa) home on the train without a ticket, easily enough. He had done it before; all vou did was sign a slip with your name and address, and promIse to pay But for all he knew the trainmen had been alerted, or cops had been posted at Long Island Station, and even if they hadn't they could pick him up at the house, as soon as he got there. No, he couldn't go home, that was obvious. And he couldn't go to a hotel, for he had no money, not to mention the fact that he'd have to sign the regis- ter. He could give a false name, of course-If he had the Inoney. It was always that question of money, and he realized now that he wasn't thinking very clearly, either. He was getting a little weavy and wavy, from the drink- ing and then the not drinking; he knew, too, that waiting somewhere deep in his mind was the realization that he'd acted like a dope fro In the start, and if he had collapsed on the sidewalk back there, at the time they'd arrested him, or if he'd just let them put him in jail and waited till morning... But he pushed that thought away, as he pushed himself away from the fence again. Something would occur to him, later. Something always had, and, God knew, whatever they thought of him, they couldn't all let him down. But, meantime, he had a long, hard nIght ahead of him, with nothing but trouble at the end of it. For the first time, as he started walking, he found himself wishing that he had had a gun, a real one. If he had, or if he had one now, there might be a real holdup, somew here that night. -ROBERT M COATES . DID You know that the Cadillac Fleet- \\ ood Series-60 Special derives its "Fleet- \vood" designation indirectly from the modest town of Fleet\vood, Pa.? Or that Fisher Body sold Cadillac the first closed body as standard equipment one year be- for Fleet\vood even existed? DETAILs-This is the kind of informa- tion that can be used to start a conversa- tion at any athletic club in the country. -Steel. And what's more satisfying than good talk?